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Bethany Mandel
Born
Bethany Ann Horowitz

1986 (age 37–38)
EducationRutgers University, New Brunswick (BA)
SpouseSeth Mandel
Children6

Bethany Shondark Mandel[1] (née Bethany Ann Horowitz) is a conservative American columnist and political and cultural commentator who writes for Deseret News and Ricochet.[2] She was named one of "36 under 36" by The Jewish Week in 2013, one of the "Forward 50" in 2015,[3] and one of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's "50 Jews everyone should follow on Twitter" in 2019.[4]

Early life and education

Mandel was raised by her mother[1] near Rochester, New York,[5] at times in poverty[6] and while receiving government support through "welfare, Medicaid, and food stamps."[7] Her mother died of lupus when Mandel was 16.[8] At 18, she changed her name to Bethany Shondark Murphy, taking her mother's maiden name.[1][6] Her father committed suicide when she was 19,[6][9] after struggling with an addiction to opioid painkillers.[10] Mandel graduated from Rutgers University in 2008 with a degree in history and Jewish studies.[3]

Career

Upon graduation, Mandel moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked for Washington Hebrew Congregation while looking for a position in conservative politics.[1] After reading about the Jay Pritzker Academy near Siem Reap in Cambodia, she wrote and asked to teach at the school, becoming a fifth grade teacher there for a year.[1]

In 2010, she returned to Washington, D.C. to pursue an Orthodox conversion to Judaism,[5] she found work as a fundraiser and writer at The Heritage Foundation, and then as a marketer, editor, and blogger for Commentary. Her advocacy for conservative causes led to her being named as one of "36 under 36" individuals reinventing Jewish life by The Jewish Week in 2013.[11]

Since 2013, she has been a freelance writer and commentator while working from home to raise her children.[12]

In 2023, Mandel co-wrote Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation with Karol Markowicz.

Defining "Woke" and Viral Celebrity

On March 14, 2023, during an interview with Briahna Joy-Gray and Roby Soave of Rising, when asked to define the word "woke" in connection to the release of her co-written work Stolen Youth: How Radicals are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation, Mandel stumbled repeatedly in attempting to define the word. “So, I mean, woke is, sort of, the idea that, um...This is going to be one of those moments that goes viral.”[13] When pressed further by Joy-Gray to elaborate and provide a working definition of the word, Mandel continued, "So, I mean, woke is...Sort of the idea that, uh, um … I … Woke is something that’s very hard to define, and we’ve spent an entire chapter defining it...It is sort of the understanding that we need to re-, totally reimagine and re-, re-, redo society in order to create hierarchies of oppression...Sorry, it’s hard to explain in a 15-second sound bite.”[14] The moment went viral across multiple platforms.

On March 15, the day following the interview, Mandel wrote an op-ed for Newsweek, stating that she was rattled by comments made by host Briahna Joy-Gray that were, “demeaning to parents in general in colorful and nasty terms”.[15] Mandel went on to provide a definition of woke as, "a radical belief system suggesting that our institutions are built around discrimination, and claiming that all disparity is a result of that discrimination. It seeks a radical redefinition of society in which equality of group result is the end point, enforced by an angry mob."[15] Mandel went on to frame the exchange and aftermath as a "teachable moment" for her children, explaining to them how people were criticizing her on the internet, how it impacted her feelings and mental health, and how it was both important and healthy to experience those feelings.[15]

"Heroes of Liberty" book series

Mandel edits the children's book series "Heroes of Liberty," which consists of biographies of right-wing cultural and political figures marketed to conservative families. The books in this series avoid mention of issues that could cause discomfort to conservative parents, such as LGBT identities or the out-of-wedlock birth of Alexander Hamilton.[16]

In January 2022, a Facebook advertising account related to Heroes of Liberty was banned for violating the social network's "Low Quality or Disruptive Content" policy. It was later restored, and a Facebook spokesman wrote that the ban had been the result of a "mistake". There had been backlash on social media, as well as from prominent Conservative commentators and politicians such as Senator Ted Cruz.[17][18] In a Heroes of Liberty video launched in February 2021, Mandel accuses the Scholastic Corporation of indoctrinating children by publishing books with themes concerning racism, LGBTQ identities and general anti-Americanism, marketing such books through school book fairs to children from families that would not intentionally purchase books with such content.[19]

School board campaign

In February 2024, Mandel filed to run for the 4th district seat on the Montgomery County school board.[20] Mandel is currently a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the school board, claiming she was wrongly denied access to a school board meeting as a member of the media.[21] She says that if elected, she would recuse herself from any board business related to this suit.[22]

Mandel's platform states its goals include a "refocus on academics," the return of school resource officers over community engagement officers, and opening up school-based sports and extracurricular activities to homeschooled and private-schooled children.[23]

She received 23.4% of the vote, coming in third place (out of three candidates), and was not elected.[24]

Views

Comments on refugee resettlement in the U.S.

In 2015, Mandel spoke publicly against the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Highland Park, New Jersey, arguing that without sufficient support to find good jobs, these refugees might become radicalized.[25][26][27] In 2021, she criticized the Biden administration for not doing more to speedily resettle Afghan refugees in the U.S.[28]

Opposition to COVID-19 lockdown continuation

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Mandel was outspoken in her opposition to the continuation of lockdowns after the initial month. In one tweet, she said:[29]

You can call me a Grandma killer. I'm not sacrificing my home, food on the table, all of our docs and dentists, every form of pleasure (museums, zoos, restaurants), all my kids' teachers in order to make other people comfortable. If you want to stay locked down, do. I'm not.

Following this, the term "Grandma Killer" trended on Twitter,[30] and Mandel added "Grandma Killer" to her Twitter bio.[6]

Mandel opposes mask mandates for children, a position she states in her opinion columns and on Twitter.[16]

Palestine and response to Hamas

On June 30, 2014, Bethany Mandel tweeted, "Not nuking these fucking animals is the only restraint I expect and that's only because the cloud would hurt Israelis" in response to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. In the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Mandel doubled down, saying, "I think it’s funny that I’m getting this tweet thrown back at me today. It was sent in the heat of the moment after another brutal attack but I… had a point", along with "I’d say the tweet aged pretty fucking well tbh", and "I’m sorry I just need to clarify something really quickly. I am not apologizing for the original tweet. Some people construed my first tweet in this thread as an apology, and I’m sorry you read it that way."[31] Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission contributor Berny Belvedere commented, "I previously said feelings of rage—even incandescent rage—are understandable in light of what Hamas has done. But this is unapologetically genocidal. People need to vigorously guard against succumbing to sentiments like this."[31]

Personal life

Mandel was born to a Catholic mother and a Jewish father and sought out Rabbi Barry Freundel for an Orthodox conversion that would make her Jewish status universally recognized.[5] She has also said that she left the Reform movement in which she originally affiliated because of its close association with progressive and liberal politics.[32]

She completed her conversion in 2011.[3] In 2014, she learned that Freundel had filmed her naked while preparing her for conversion.[5][33] She wrote an article entitled "The Convert Bill of Rights" that went viral, making her a spokeswoman for the many victims of the Freundel scandal. She served on a committee appointed by the Rabbinical Council of America to suggest safeguards against future abuses in the conversion process.[34] For this work, the Forward named her one of the "Forward 50" in 2015,[35] and the Rutgers University Hillel honored her with its Young Alumni Award at its 2016 Annual Gala.[36] She has also said that it became clear to her that the RCA did not want to enact meaningful changes to its conversion program, that she resigned from the committee when she understood this, and that the experience left her disenchanted with Orthodoxy as a whole. As a consequence, she and her husband stopped participating in Orthodox Jewish institutions, such as synagogues and schools,[6] before finding a supportive synagogue in Kemp Mill several years later.[32]

She is married to Seth Mandel and is the mother of six children.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Twitter Personality of the Week #17: 10 Questions for Bethany Shondark Murphy (@bethanyshondark)". December 6, 2010.
  2. ^ a b Graham, Jennifer (October 27, 2021). "Meet the couple out to convince you to have more kids". Deseret News. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Reed, Esther (April 6, 2016). "Rutgers Hillel honors legacy, leaders, rising stars at gala". My Central Jersey. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  4. ^ "The 50 Jews everyone should follow on Twitter". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. January 3, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Jaffe, Harry (January 3, 2016). "The Devastating Story of Washington's Peeping-Tom Rabbi". Washingtonian. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d e Kampeas, Ron (July 9, 2020). "Bethany Mandel will not be canceled". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  7. ^ "Tweet by Bethany Mandel". Twitter. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  8. ^ "Remembering My Mom: Vera J. Murphy 1956–2002". Kosher Girl in a Bacon World. December 28, 2012. Archived from the original on August 11, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  9. ^ "Seven Years Later". Kosher Girl in a Bacon World. September 13, 2012. Archived from the original on August 11, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  10. ^ Mandel, Bethany S. (August 1, 2017). "My dad committed suicide in 2009, addicted to opioid painkillers. I don't talk about him much, here or in real life". @bethanyshondark. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  11. ^ "Bethany Mandel, 27". Jewish Week. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  12. ^ Bethany Mandel (April 19, 2018). "Tammy Duckworth's Senate vote with a baby in tow is a model of accommodation for working mothers: Women can be mothers and productive members of society simultaneously, if given the opportunity". www.nbcnews.com. I have balanced full-time, stay-at-home motherhood alongside a writing career for almost five years (and I'm not unique in that). I have brought my children to interviews, to speaking engagements and on work trips. I've nursed a baby during a live video interview that began later than anticipated (which would otherwise have fallen during a nap time), I've bounced a baby in a baby carrier while giving testimony in open court. In the background of almost every single work-related call is the sound of children laughing, arguing and, sometimes, both.
  13. ^ Shapero, Julia (March 15, 2023). "Conservative author Bethany Mandel struggles to come up with definition of 'woke'". The Hill. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  14. ^ Thakker, Prem; Otten, Tori; Thakker, Prem; Otten, Tori; Otten, Tori; Thakker, Prem; Thakker, Prem; Otten, Tori; Thakker, Prem (November 1, 2022). "A Viral Moment on the Definition of "Woke" Reveals All You Need to Know About the Right's Attacks". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  15. ^ a b c Mandel, Bethany (March 17, 2023). ""I was asked to define woke. My humiliation went viral"". Newsweek. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  16. ^ a b Hounshell, Blake; Askarinam, Leah (February 3, 2022). "'Daddy, What's an Originalist?'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  17. ^ Contreras, Russell (February 9, 2022). "Conservative children's book startup release works on John Wayne, Amy Coney Barrett". Axios. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  18. ^ Barrabi, Thomas (January 4, 2022). "Facebook restores conservative book publisher's account after 'error'". The New York Post. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  19. ^ O'Neil, Tyler (February 13, 2022). "Conservative publisher Heroes of Liberty takes aim at the Scholastic 'Woketopus'". Fox Business. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  20. ^ Pollak, Suzanne (February 10, 2024). "At Filing Deadline, Here Are the School Board Candidates". Montgomery Community Media. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  21. ^ Konieczny, Rachel (November 14, 2023). "Pair sue over denied access to Montgomery County school board meeting on LGBTQ-themed books". Maryland Daily Record. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  22. ^ "FAQ". Bethany Mandel.
  23. ^ "Issues". Bethany Mandel. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  24. ^ "Unofficial 2024 Presidential Primary Election Results for Montgomery County". Retrieved June 12, 2024.
  25. ^ Yi, Karen. "NJ religious leaders: We must accept Syrian refugees". Asbury Park Press. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  26. ^ Amaral, Brian (November 24, 2015). "Highland Park clergy press for 'open doors' to refugees". nj. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  27. ^ Hill, Michael (November 23, 2015). "Religious Roundtable Opens Up Discussion and Minds on Accepting Refugees". NJ Spotlight News.
  28. ^ Mandel, Bethany (September 2, 2021). "Opinion: When Biden dropped the ball in Afghanistan, America showed up". Deseret News. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  29. ^ "'You can call me a grandma killer,' opponent of lockdown says, and social media obliges". NJ.com. May 6, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  30. ^ Nash, Charlie (May 6, 2020). "Conservative Commentator Bethany Mandel Trends on Twitter After 'Grandma Killer' Coronavirus Comments". Mediaite. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  31. ^ a b "Conservative Columnist Doubles Down on Shocking Call For Revenge Against 'F****** Animals' in Gaza". Mediaite. October 23, 2023. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  32. ^ a b "Bethany S. Mandel". EIGHTEENFORTY. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  33. ^ Heilman, Uriel (October 21, 2014). "Converts say Freundel's abuse of power extended beyond mikvah peeping". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  34. ^ "RCA sets panel to review conversion process in wake of Freundel scandal". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. October 29, 2014. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  35. ^ "Bethany Mandel". The Forward. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  36. ^ "Rutgers Hillel Helped Me Build a Jewish Life - And Eventually Become a Jewish Wife by Bethany Mandel '08 - Rutgers Hillel". www.rutgershillel.org. April 6, 2016. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
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